Ghana Ready To Host Int. Hockey Tourney

The National Hockey Stadium gets busy from Friday as some 90 players and 30 officials converge for the three-day FIH Hockey World League Round 1 tournament in Accra.

Host, Ghana, Nigeria and powerhouse, Egypt, would be battling to pick the single ticket in both the male and female categories to play in round 2 next year.

The winner takes all competition, has been introduced by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to give more playing opportunities to hockey nations and to ease their ranking to replace the World Cup, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games qualifiers from 2014.

South Africa and the female team of Egypt have already drawn a bye for Round 2 in the four-stage qualifying system.

The national hockey team, the Black Sticks, is in high spirit to secure a place to participate in the Commonwealth Games as well as the subsequent rounds of World League.

The stage appears set following the arrival of the African Hockey Federation, Seif Ahmed, last Monday for the big game.

According to the Ghana Hockey Association, the FIH Competitions Manager, Martyn Gallivan, the Tournament Director, Mohammed Shaheen, as well as the Neutral Umpire from Italy arrive today.

As part of it reforms and to give the sport a new face, officials of FIH and their African counterparts are expected to meet to agree on the way forward this weekend.

Match Schedule
Date Match Time Match

Fri., Sept. 7 W01 16:00 Ghana v Nigeria

M01 18:15 Ghana v Nigeria

Sat., Sept. 8 W02 16:00 Nigeria v Ghana

M02 18:15 Egypt v Nigeria

Sun., Sept. 9 W03 14:00 Ghana v Nigeria

M03 16.15 Egypt v Ghana